The award provides funds for a workstation to be used for data reduction for relatively deep images of selected 6 x 6 arcminute fields around cepheids in the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds (SMC and LMC). Images to be analyzed have been obtained with the Las Campana 1.0-meter telescope, and reach magnitudes well below the SMC horizontal branch level. The goalds of this project are a general study of the underlying setllar populations and, in particular, to seek faint RR Lyraes. RR Lyraes are key to globular cluster ages and cepheids are key to the determination of the Hubble constant. It is crucial to tie the two scales together in order to resolbe the paradox that the expansion age based on the current value of Hubble's constant is less thant the ages of the oldest globular clusters.
